Year 4 articles

Venn diagrams are often used to sort data in primary school. Find out what parents need to know about how to complete and read a Venn diagram correctly, plus how they're used in the classroom in KS1 and KS2.

Also known as the jump strategy or complementary addition, subtraction on a number line is a common technique in KS1 and KS2 maths, useful for helping children visualise that subtraction is finding the difference between two numbers. Teacher Alice Hart explains the method and how it's taught in primary school maths.

Help your child with their addition work, from the basics in Reception to calculations in KS1 and KS2, with some teachers' tricks to help the learning stick.

From reading rhyming poems to identifying rhyme schemes and rhyming couplets, we explain everything you need to know to help you support your child's love and learning of poetry at home.

Information texts are an important part of primary school literacy lessons. We explain the features of this non-fiction genre, why note-taking matters and how to help your child at home.

Argument texts are studied and written in KS2 literacy. We explain the features to look out for in this non-fiction genre and how to help your child structure and write their own argument text correctly.

Non-fiction texts are read, studied and written throughout the primary-school years. Our parents' guide covers instruction texts, recounts, information and explanation texts, persuasive writing and argument texts and explains what you need to know to support your child.

Children are encouraged to read and write a range of genres in their time at primary school. Each year they will focus on various narrative, non-fiction and poetry units; we explain how story-writing lessons help develop their story structure, grammar and punctuation skills.

Helping your child engage with their reading matter and improve their literacy skills, book reports are a homework staple. So what’s involved, and how can you make them easier for your child? Lucy Dimbylow explains.

With a home-from-home environment and smaller numbers than an after-school club, childminders are a popular choice for after-school childcare. Here’s what you need to know.

Every story has a setting, and primary-school children learn to analyse story settings in other people's writing before using the same techniques in their own fiction writing. Read on for details of how story settings are taught in KS1 and KS2.

What are the signs to look out for if you think your child might have dyscalculia or 'number blindness', and what can be done to help?

Dyspraxia, or Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), causes problems with language, perception and thought – most specifically issues with co-ordination. Around one in seven children has this learning difficulty and if your child is affected it can be hard to know how to help for the best. Here we answer some of the most common questions parents ask.

Inverse operations are opposite operations – one reverses the effect of the other. In primary maths we talk about the inverse to explain how addition and subtraction are linked and how multiplication and division are linked. Teacher Alice Hart offers examples of how and when your child will be asked to use the inverse operation in school, and practical ways to help them understand the concept.

Holidays are anything but an education-free-zone says Phoebe Doyle, teacher and mum. Make the most of your children's experiences outside the classroom by turning them into literacy and numeracy learning adventures.

To you, they might look like a fidget, but your child’s restlessness could actually be helping them learn. Find out more about the theory of kinaesthetic learners and how learning styles might be discussed during your child's time at primary school.

Does your child have an obsession with highlighters, or spend hours looking at YouTube videos about their latest class topic? They might be a visual learner. Read our guide to the theory of learning styles and how it might be mentioned during your child's time at primary school.

In the past, primary school children taking SATs were given their results as a National Curriculum level. But what did these numbers actually mean? Lucy Dimbylow explains the grading system used in primary schools until September 2014 in parent-friendly language.

It’s free, portable, quiet enough to play anywhere and has powerful brain-boosting benefits for kids – and it’s fun, too. Here’s why you should get your child hooked on chess.